Brussels, 13/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - To finance the ITER nuclear reactor project for the period 2014-2018, the European Commission approved, on Tuesday 12 December, the setting in place of a “supplementary research programme” with a budget of €2.361 billion outside the multiannual financial framework 2014-2020.
While eight states - including France and Germany (see EUROPE N.10496) - had already, in mid November, affirmed their position regarding the proposal to withdraw ITER from the common budget, the Commission now justifies its proposal by the fact that the multiannual financial framework is not a suitable or flexible vehicle for funding major and very long-term projects like ITER. The creation of a new funding programme, under the aegis of the Euratom Treaty, should, the Commission says, allow continuity in investment to be ensured, while avoiding renegotiation of the same agreement on ITER.
Funding of the project for the years 2019 to 2020 should be ensured by a similar programme with a budget estimated at €346 million. The contribution for these programmes would meet the same criteria as those applying to the EU budget, namely that the share for each member state would be calculated in relation to its Gross National Income (GNI). These contributions would be managed by the Commission as “assigned revenue”, meaning the funds provided can only be used to finance this specific expenditure and not other EU activities. In November this year, Laurent Wauquiez, France's Minister for Higher Education and Research, had stated that, if separation of the ITER project from the common budget were to come about, this would have “very harmful consequences and would be seen as the sign of European Union disengagement from major strategic sectors”. (JK/transl.jl)